Russia eBook

cruise along the Murman coast, or, it may be, off
the coast of Spitzbergen. His gains will depend
on the amount caught, for it is a joint-venture; but
in no case can they be very great, for three-fourths
of the fish brought into port belongs to the owner
of the craft and tackle. Of the sum realised,
he brings home perhaps only a small part, for he has
a strong temptation to buy rum, tea, and other luxuries,
which are very dear in those northern latitudes.
If the fishing is good and he resists temptation, he
may save as much as 100 roubles—­about 10
pounds—­and thereby live comfortably all
winter; but if the fishing season is bad, he may find
himself at the end of it not only with empty pockets,
but in debt to the owner of the boat. This debt
he may pay off, if he has a horse, by transporting
the dried fish to Kargopol, St. Petersburg, or some
other market.

It is here in the Far North that the ancient folk-lore—­popular
songs, stories, and fragments of epic poetry—­has
been best preserved; but this is a field on which
I need not enter, for the reader can easily find all
that he may desire to know on the subject in the brilliant
writings of M. Rambaud and the very interesting, conscientious
works of the late Mr. Ralston,* which enjoy a high
reputation in Russia.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MIR, OR VILLAGE COMMUNITY

Social and Political Importance of the Mir—­The
Mir and the Family Compared—­Theory of the
Communal System—­Practical Deviations from
the Theory—­The Mir a Good Specimen of Constitutional
Government of the Extreme Democratic Type—­The
Village Assembly—­Female Members—­The
Elections—­Distribution of the Communal Land.

When I had gained a clear notion of the family-life
and occupations of the peasantry, I turned my attention
to the constitution of the village. This was
a subject which specially interested me, because I
was aware that the Mir is the most peculiar of Russian
institutions. Long before visiting Russia I had
looked into Haxthausen’s celebrated work, by
which the peculiarities of the Russian village system
were first made known to Western Europe, and during
my stay in St. Petersburg I had often been informed
by intelligent, educated Russians that the rural Commune
presented a practical solution of many difficult social
problems with which the philosophers and statesmen
of the West had long been vainly struggling.
“The nations of the West”—­such
was the substance of innumerable discourses which
I had heard—­“are at present on the
high-road to political and social anarchy, and England
has the unenviable distinction of being foremost in
the race. The natural increase of population,
together with the expropriation of the small landholders
by the great landed proprietors, has created a dangerous